A FOOD TRADITION

Maroon Surinamese Cuisine

Maroon Surinamese cuisine encompasses foodways maintained by communities descended from Africans who formed autonomous societies in the interior, including Saramaka, Ndyuka, Matawai, Aluku, Paramaka, and Kwinti peoples. Practices vary among communities, but cassava, plantain, rice, maize, fish, smoked or salted meat, leafy greens, and forest products are recurring foundations. Cooking commonly uses wood fires, boiling, roasting, smoking, pounding, and preparation in leaf or wooden vessels. Recognizable examples include cassava bread, apapá, and peanut- or fish-based stews. Riverine geography, subsistence farming, fishing, and intergenerational preservation are central to the tradition.

Catalogue preview Cuisine connections may be unreviewed. Regional comparisons include their food references and do not establish the ingredients of a particular meal.